Granny Magic
Appalachian Granny Magic is a combination of folk remedies, faith healing, superstitions, and storytelling handed down by generations of families in the Appalachian Mountains.Eliot Wigginton, ed., The Foxfire Book, Anchor Press, 1972. This folklore is termed "Granny" from the prominent role played by older women in mountain communities. This role is well-described by John Campbell in The Southern Highlander and His Homeland, a description worth repeating here: :There is something magnificent in many of the older women with their stern theology -- part mysticism, part fatalism -- and their deep understanding of life. ..."Granny" -- and one may be a grandmother young in the mountains -- if she has survived the labor and tribulation of her younger days, has gained a freedom and a place of irresponsible authority in the home hardly rivaled by the men of the family. ...Though superstitious she has a fund of common sense, and she is a shrewd judge of character. In sickness she is the first to be consulted, for she is generally something of an herb doctor, and her advice is sought by the young people of half the countryside in all things from a love affair to putting a new web in the loom.John C. Campbell, The Southern Highlander and his Homeland, University Press of Kentucky, 1969, pg., 140. Origin European settlement of the Appalachians began in the late eighteenth century by Protestant Scotch-Irish immigrants from northern Ireland, whose ancestors originated in the border country between Scotland and England.David Hackett Fischer, Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America, Oxford University Press, 1989 Some of this lore is traceable to Britain,Cecil James Sharp, Olive Dame Campbell, Maud Karpeles, English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, Oxford University Press, 1960 while some developed as necessity dictated in the remote mountain areas, due to lack of access to professional medical treatment.John C. Campbell, The Southern Highlander and his Homeland, University Press of Kentucky, 1969, and Eliot Wigginton, ed., The Foxfire Book, Anchor Press, 1972. This collection of Appalachian folkways and beliefs has sometimes recently been deemed erroneously to be a conscious survival of ancient pagan religious or witchcraft traditions. However, the people who settled the mountains were staunch evangelical Protestants. In the early years of settlement in the late eighteenth century, the settlers were primarily Presbyterians,Leyburn, James G., The Scotch-Irish: A Social History, Univ of NC Press, 1962, pg 273. preserving the strong Calvinism of their northern Irish forbears. By the early 1800s the majority of Appalachian settlers had become Baptists and Methodists, although a few Presbyterian congregations remained.Leyburn, James G., The Scotch-Irish: A Social History, Univ of NC Press, 1962, pg 295. This Appalachian "magic" included such folkways as dowsing, herbalism, faith healing and midwifery. Supposed Connection with Native American Traditions Cherokee traded furs for cloth. The cloth was not only used for clothing, but also to pay the Shamans for treatment. Though the medicine men did not charge for medical practice, they required a form of payment for performing love charms, hunting ceremonials, and other conjures. Beads were used in many instances; the patient was required to furnish not only the beads, but also a certain quantity of new cloth upon which to place them. At the close of the ceremony the medicine man would roll up the cloth, beads and all, and take it with him. Custom required that he sell, not use, the cloth. The practice was sometimes repeated over a period of days, each time requiring new cloth. Some Shamans would sell the required cloth to the patient himself, then take the used cloth with him. The Cherokee, Shawnee and other Shamans (medicine men) traded secrets when they met. These were passed on orally before the Sequoya method of writing was developed. According to archeologist James Mooney “It was the practice when one shaman met another whom he thought might give him some valuable information, would say to him (sic), 'Let us sit down together.' This was understood by the other to mean, 'Let us tell each other our secrets.' It was necessary to cultivate a long memory, as none were repeated more than once for his benefit. It was considered that one who failed to remember after the first hearing was not worthy to be accounted a shaman.” When illness struck the white settlers and traditional methods of healing failed, they sometimes turned to friendly Cherokee nearby. This also provided the medicine men with new opportunities to obtain cloth and other goods from them in return. These methods were soon incorporated into the beliefs the settlers brought with them from Europe. The Cherokee believed in at least two types of witches. The “Night Goer” or “sûnnâ'yï edâ'hï “ came at night to bring to the home. Alternatively, what might be called a good witch, “u'ya igawa'stï “ saturated the medicine given by the medicine man and by counteracting the spell, killed the Night Goer. The settlers combined elements of their own witchcraft traditions with those of the native Cherokee. Category:traditions